Category: Health Care

AL-Senate - Bill Barnes Won't Vote to Repeal Health Insurance Reform

September 2, 2010 by Left in Alabama

Democratic candidate for Senate, Bill Barnes, scoffs at the GOP's contention that people without health insurance "can just go to the emergency room" and stresses his opposition to the repeal of health insurance reform in this interview with Left in Alabama.  Barnes is running against Richard Shelby who's against pretty much everything - extension of unemployment benefits, Lilly Ledbetter, economic stimulus, health reform, and any type of government spending outside his state.

Here's a partial transcript of Barnes' statement and the video (about 3 1/2 minutes) is on the flip:

I would not support repeal of health care legislation.

Let me just back up a moment.... The initial efforts to effect national health legislation goes way back to 1946 - President Truman - and it' never been passed and has come up time after time over the years. 

All I know is what I read in the papers

August 29, 2010 by Uppity Wisconsin

Some big news in Sunday's Journal Sentinel:

Democratic candidates in Wisconsin have quit campaigning for office, apparently because August is too humid or something.

Scott Walker and Mark Neumann are campaigning and so is Ron Johnson.   Apparently their opponents are too lazy or have just given up.

Johnson, by  the way, is still telling the story about his daughter's health problem, and the newspaper is still reprinting it, even though it has nothing at all to do with the health care reform bill passed this year.

Wascally Walker waffles, weaves, wiggles and weasels

August 27, 2010 by Uppity Wisconsin

" Say that quickly five times.

What Scott Walker's doing is not even mildly amusing, however.  It could mean taking away health coverage for as many as 350,000 Wisconsin residents.

For a year now, Walker's been bashing BadgerCare, one of Wisconsin's proudest accomplishments, which gives access to health care coverage for children, expectant mothers, and people whose employers don't provide health insurance coverage.

It's one of the state's real success stories.  But Walker has repeatedly attacked it, calling the program "an example of government waste," and callilng for time limits on how long people can be on the program.

He hasn't just said it once, and it was no slip of the tongue, as he tried to say after his debate with Msrk Neumann this week.  Here's what he said in the debate:

Ron Johnson's personal story turns to fiction

August 21, 2010 by Uppity Wisconsin

Ron Johnson, who's taken back half of what he's said since entering the race for US Senate, has had one consistent story he tells on the stump and in interviews.

It's a personal story about his daughter, which humanizes him (makes him seem a little less like a space alien who just entered our atmosphere) and sets up his complaints about national health care reform.

Maybe it's because it is personal, but the news media have been giving him a pass and simply reporting the story without asking whether it makes any sense. (It doesn't.)

The latest version was reported by the Racine Journal Times, but similar reports have appeared elsewhere. It goes like this, reported by WKOW-TV in Madison:

While Johnson has related the experience of his eldest daughter's medical emergency as an infant before, the Oshkosh businessman spoke of it in some detail for the first time in Madison.

Johnson said Carey Johnson had a serious heart condition requiring immediate surgery right after her birth twenty seven years ago.

On Online Brainstorming, Or, "Hey, Unions...Wanna Grow?"

August 17, 2010 by Left in Alabama

Sometimes stories happen because of planning; other times serendipity intervenes, which is how we got to the conversation we’ll be having today.

In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.

If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.

Since I just thought this up myself, I’m really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.

It’s a new week...so let’s all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?